Sol–gel spin coating is applied to fabricate the pure and different concentrations of aluminum (Al)-doped ZnO films on high-quality silicon substrates. All films are showing high crystallinity in X-ray diffraction study, and lattice constants were obtained using PowderX software. The value of crystallite size was found in range of 20–40 nm. EDX/SEM mapping was performed for 2 wt% Al-doped ZnO film, which shows the presence of Al and its homogeneous distribution in the film. SEM investigation shows nanorods morphology all over the surface of films, and the dimension of nanorods is found to increase with Al doping. The E(g)dire. values were estimate in range of 3.25–3.29 eV for all films. Linear refractive index was found in range of 1.5–2.75. The χ1 value is found in range of 0.13–1.4 for all films. The χ3 values are found in range of 0.0053 × 10−10 to 6.24 × 10−10 esu for pure and doped films. The n2 values were also estimated. These studies clearly showed that the properties of ZnO have been enriched by Al doping, and hence doped films are more appropriate for optoelectronic applications.

A new deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) technique is described, called half-width at variable intensity analysis. This method utilizes the width and normalized intensity of a DLTS signal to determine the activation energy and capture cross section of the trap that generated the signal via a variable, kO. This constant relates the carrier emission rates giving rise to the differential capacitance signal associated with a given trap at two different temperatures: the temperature at which the maximum differential capacitance is detected, and an arbitrary temperature at which some nonzero differential capacitance signal is detected. The extracted activation energy of the detected trap center is used along with the position of the peak maximum to extract the capture cross section of the trap center.

Antimicrobial textiles received considerable attention due to public health and personal hygiene concerns. On the other hand, pathogenic microorganisms gain immunity against existing antibacterial products. For these reasons, new and stronger antibacterial agents need to be developed immediately. In this work, silver nanowires (Ag NWs) were decorated onto conventional fabrics via facile and scalable dip and dry method. Antimicrobial activity of the nanowire-decorated fabrics was investigated against a Gram-positive coccus (Staphylococcus aureus), a Gram-negative bacillus (Escherichia coli), a Gram-positive and spore-forming bacillus (Bacillus cereus), and a yeast-like fungus (Candida albicans) via disk diffusion and time–dependent killing methods. The effect of Ag NW content was investigated, and the decorated fabrics showed promising antibacterial activity even with a small amount of Ag NW decoration (0.095 mg/cm2). Moreover, decorated fabrics maintained their activity for 24 h. This work shows that Ag NW-modified fabrics can be used as antimicrobial textiles against a wide spectrum of bacteria.

A facile one-pot and environmentally friendly method was developed to synthesize multi-branched flowerlike gold (Au) nanostructures by reducing chlorate gold (HAuCl4) with hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in the presence of sodium citrate. The multibranched Au nanostructures were characterized by transmission electron microscopy and Ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) absorption spectroscopy. The molar ratio of sodium citrate to HAuCl4 and the concentrations of the reacted reagents play important roles in the formation of multibranched Au nanostructures. The multibranched Au nanostructures with sharp tips exhibit excellent surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) ability of 4-aminothiophenol (PATP). The experimental and simulated results both confirm that the photoinduced catalytic coupling reaction of PATP transformation to 4,4′-dimercaptoazobenzene occurs on the surface of multibranched Au nanostructures at a high power during the SERS measurement. It is believed that these multibranched Au nanostructures may find potential applications in SERS, biosensors, and the photoinduced surface catalytic application fields.

In this work, atomic layer deposition (ALD), as a novel strategy, has been applied to deposit MgO on nano-sized porous Si (pSi) dendrites obtained by etching Al–Si alloy for LIBs. The reversible specific capacity of pSi@MgO electrode is 969.4 mA h/g after 100 cycles at 100 mA/g between 0.01 and 1.5 V, and it presents the discharge specific capacities of 1253.0, 885.5, 642.4, 366.2, and 101.4 mA h/g at 100, 500, 1000, 2000, and 5000 mA/g, respectively. What is more, it delivers a high reversible capacity of 765.1 mA h/g even at 500 mA/g after 200 cycles. The performance improvement can be attributed to the protection of the MgO layer and built-in space of porous Si for volume expansion upon cycling. These results illustrate that ALD derived coating is a powerful strategy to enhance electrical properties of anode materials with huge volume change for lithium-ion batteries.

Scaffolds based on two different geometries were constructed by additive manufacturing: one based on a triply periodic minimal surface, the Schwarz D surface, and the other based on a rectangular geometry with orthogonal through-holes. For construction of the scaffolds, two different materials were used: polylactic acid (PLA) in filament form and alumina in printable paste form. The structure of the resulting scaffolds was characterized via X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy, and cell proliferation was assessed for each geometry and material, using fluorescence microscopy and DNA quantification via NanoDrop. Additive manufacturing allowed us to obtain scaffolds with the assessed materials while guaranteeing the interconnectivity of the pores in each one. The curved surfaces constructed with PLA were more favorable for cell attachment and proliferation of the CHO-K1 cell line.

Herein, we present the fabrication and characterization of Gd:PbI2 thin films from low-cost material using a cost-effective spin-coating technique by taking the Gd content as 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 wt% in PbI2. Single-phase and good crystallinity films oriented along the c-axis were confirmed by X-ray diffraction and FT-Raman spectroscopy. Size of crystallites increased with Gd concentration and was estimated to be in the range of 16–32 nm. Determination of morphology and size of grains (50–103 nm), and elemental confirmation were carried out by SEM/EDX analysis. Optical transparency of fabricated films was found to be in the range of 72–92%. The energy gap is reduced from 2.31 to 2.05 eV; this makes Gd:PbI2 films highly applicable in solar cells. The stable value of refractive index is estimated to be in the range of 1.85–2.3. Dielectric constant was observed to be reduced with doping and in the range of 2.5–35, and ac conductivity was also reduced by doping; however, both were enhanced with frequency. The values of χ(1), χ(3), and n(2) are found to be in the range of 0.15 to 2.5, 8 × 10−14 to 6.5 × 10−9, and 5 × 10−12 to 4 × 10−8, respectively.

Heteroatom-doped carbon plays a vital role in the field of energy storage and conversion, and the synthesis of them has intimate relation with doping pathways. In this work, a facile two-step doping pathway, i.e., hydrothermal method followed by thermal annealing process, was employed to prepare annealed three-dimensional N,S-codoped graphene framework (3D A-NSG). The morphology, structure, composition, and related electrochemical performance were all studied. The results showed that A-NSG possessed typical 3D thin nanosheets, much increased specific surface area and structural defects, strengthened conductivity, and optimized N and S configurations (especially for dominated pyridinic N as well as graphitic N and –C–S–C–). As a result, A-NSG presented much better capacitance and oxygen reduction reaction performance than the counterparts. Apparently, our work offers a good guidance on the synthesis of advanced heteroatom-doped carbon materials by adjusting the doping strategy.

The interaction between water and oxide surfaces plays an important role in many technological applications and environmental processes. However, gaining fundamental understanding of processes at oxide–water interfaces is challenging because of the complexity of the systems. To this end, results of experimental and computational studies utilizing well-defined oxide surfaces help to gain molecular-scale insights into the properties and reactivity of water on oxide surfaces. This is a necessary basis for the understanding of oxide surface chemistry in more complex environments. This review highlights recent advances in the fundamental understanding of oxide–water interaction using surface science experiments. In particular, we will discuss the results on crystalline and well-defined supported thin film oxide samples of the alkaline earth oxides (MgO and CaO), silica (SiO2), and magnetite (Fe3O4). Several aspects of water–oxide interactions such as adsorption modes (molecular versus dissociative), formation of long-range ordered structures, and dissolution processes will be discussed.

Polylactic acid (PLA) filament 3D parts printed by fused deposition modeling (FDM) have poor mechanical properties because of weak fusion interfaces. This article shows that SiC-coated PLA filaments are effective means to increase mechanical performance of PLA composites that are microwave heated. Numerical calculations on temperature-rising characteristics and temperature distribution of the interface in the microwave field are shown. 3D-printed specimens of PLA/SiC composites were printed by FDM and heated in a microwave. The experiments show the SiC/PLA composite filaments have better temperature-rising characteristics and temperature distribution at 185 °C for 60 s in the microwave field, and this enabled the 3D-printed specimens to achieve in situ remelting on the interface and increased interface bonding between PLA filaments. The SiC/PLA composite specimens heated using microwave increased by 51% in tensile strength, 42% in tensile modulus, and 18.7% in interlayer breaking stress relative to PLA. These results provided a new approach for the improvement of FDM workpiece strength.

Mechanical fracture of electrodes will occur during lithiation caused by large volume changes, which leads to the capacity loss of the lithium-ion battery. Herein, we present a new analytical model to investigate the effect of creep deformation on stress relaxation and fracture of the lithiated tin (Sn) electrode under the galvanostatic and potentiostatic operation. Interestingly, it is found that the presence of creep can improve fracture resistance and toughness of the Sn electrode. In addition, the surface effect has the capacity to weaken the creep deformation effectively. And the different size of the Sn electrode shows different effects for creep deformation. This conclusion explains the difference in charging conditions, and the mechanism of stress change inside the electrode is also different. Deeply, the base on our model, the stress strength factor, and critical size of the electrode have been evaluated under galvanostatic and potentiostatic operation with creep deformation effects. Finally, the safety area during lithiation is established to determine the critical size of the Sn electrode. And the presence of creep deformation may significantly increase critical dimensions of the electrode. These results will provide a valuable basis to design the durable electrodes.

In this work, flavonoids in Polygonum cuspidatum Sieb. et Zucc. were extracted by ultrasound-assisted methodology and determined by ultraviolet–visible spectrophotometry. After that, extraction conditions were optimized by the single fact investigation, the central composite design, and response surface methodology (RSM) in turn. The results showed the optimal values of ethanol concentration, solid–liquid ratio, extraction temperature, extraction time, ultrasonic power, and number of extraction times were 60%, 1:20 (g/mL), 45 °C, 34 min; 80 W, and 5, respectively. The extraction ratio of flavonoids could be as high as 94.50%. The influence order of each factor was ultrasonic power > extraction time > extraction temperature > ethanol concentration. The results also showed that the experimental value was close to the predicted value (94.49%) of the established model by RSM, which proved that the established model was reasonable. The thermodynamic results showed that the extraction process was endothermic and could proceed spontaneously.

G-protein-coupled receptor 142 (GPR142) belongs to rhodopsin family. GPR142 and GPR119, both Gq-coupled receptors, are expressed in pancreatic β cells of pancreas; their activation eventually leads to triggering of insulin secretion. In this paper, through a systems and synthetic biology approach, the effect of a common hit compound has been investigated in GPR142 and GPR119 pathways. This hit that has the potential to be developed as a lead for nanodrug was obtained through high-throughput virtual screening. The hit compound was further docked with nanoparticles (GOLD, SPION, and CeO2). The probable effect of this potential hit on insulin secretion in type 2 diabetes and its dynamic behavior was explored. Kinetic simulation was performed for cross-validation of its role in both the pathways. This study opens up a probable avenue in therapy of type 2 diabetes through regulation of GPR142 and GPR119 receptors. The biological circuit constructed may further have an application as a modulator to control the up- and downregulation of the biochemical pathway and can be implemented as sensors or nanochips for therapy.

High-purity niobium single crystals of five different orientations were compressed at 77 K to 2–4% plastic strain to investigate the mechanisms operative in the initial stage of yielding. The crystals deformed in the direction close to the [001] axis exhibit predominant slip on the high-stressed (101) and a much lower stressed $\left( {0\bar{1}1} \right)$ plane. The expected slip on the $\left( {\bar{1}01} \right)$ plane is nearly homogeneously distributed with only a few sharp slip traces corresponding to localized slip. The samples compressed along center-triangle orientations and those close to the $\left[ {011} \right] - \left[ {\bar{1}11} \right]$ edge deform predominantly by twinning on {112}〈111〉 systems with some contribution from slip on the $\left( {\bar{1}01} \right)\left[ {\bar{1}\bar{1}\bar{1}} \right]$ system with the highest Schmid factor. A majority of twins exhibit internal contrast due to alternating slip on $\left( {\bar{1}01} \right)$ and $\left( {0\bar{1}1} \right)$ planes. No slip traces are observed in the matrix adjacent to the twin, which implies that twin boundaries are impenetrable obstacles for the motion of dislocations.

Residual stress is generally evaluated using indentation by comparing the indentation curves of stressed and stress-free states. Here, we suggest a new method that can evaluate surface residual stress without indentation testing on stress-free specimen using stress-independent indentation parameters and an analysis of indentation contact morphology for the stress-free state. We found that several indentation parameters are independent of the stress by Vickers indentation testing on various stress states. The indentation contact morphology can be represented by indentation parameters including stress-independent ones, and by applying the stress-independent parameters obtained from the stressed state to the indentation contact depth function, we can estimate an indentation curve for stress-free state. The estimated curve matches well with the experimental stress-free indentation curve, and it was also confirmed that the applied stress values evaluated by comparing the estimated curve with the stressed indentation curve agree well with the reference values obtained from strain gauge.

To suppress the interface gap between the cell walls of wood and filled epoxy resin, a green and universal H2O2 or H2O2/HAc steam-modified delignification approach is developed to remove more lignin, thereby generating more pores to be more conveniently backfilled by epoxy resin for highly transparent wood composites. Utilizing the excellent penetration ability of steam, not only different wood species, such as basswood and pine, with different cutting directions but also the thickest (40 mm) and largest (210 × 190 mm) wood samples can be successfully delignified. Compared with the 1.9% lignin content (which is the normal content of delignified wood prepared by solution-based methods) of delignified wood, the as-prepared delignified wood has the lowest lignin content of 0.84% to date. After the infiltration of epoxy resin, not only did the mechanical strength of the 5-mm transparent wood composite increase from 12.5 to 20.6 MPa, but the transmittance (the wavelength was 550 nm) also increased from 80 to 87% due to the lower absorbance of visible light by lignin and the suppression of the interface debonding gap between the cell walls and the backfilled epoxy resin.

To simulate the effects of hot working parameters on microstructure and flow resistance during dynamic recrystallization (DRX) of a Ni–Cr–Mo-based C276 superalloy, a 2D mesoscopic model has been established using cellular automaton (CA) method. The isothermal hot compression tests were performed on a Gleeble 1500 thermal-mechanical simulator at the temperature range of 1273–1473 K and strain rate range of 0.001–5 s−1. The flow stress behaviors were then obtained and the microstructures of quenching specimen were observed after compression. Then the dislocation density evolution, nucleation and grain growth during hot compression were determined from experiments and integrated to the CA model. The topology of microstructure evolution and deformation resistance were calculated using the developed CA model and compared with the experimental ones. The CA simulation results show reasonable agreements with the experiments, implying the developed CA can capture the effects of processing parameters on the DRX behavior of C276 superalloy.

In order to develop an efficient and accurate quasi-continuum approach for contact problems of low-dimensional nanoscale carbon materials, a van der Waals contact-bond model is proposed in this study. This method can involve the important information of nano- and micro-structures, such as the bonded carbon atom interactions and the long-range van der Waals effect, which is usually homogenized and neglected in continuum methods. The degree of freedom of the atomic systems can be reduced dramatically; therefore, the model is beneficial for rapid simulations and large-scale computations of carbon nano-components. The so-called higher-order Cauchy–Born rule is used to establish the geometrically consistent constitutive model, and a meshless local Petrov–Galerkin-based computational framework is constructed for the mechanical responses of carbon nanoscale systems. The stiffness matrix is derived analytically, and the incremental governing equation is solved with the Newton–Raphson iteration method. Consequently, this method is much faster than order-N2 approaches such as molecular dynamic simulation.

Fatigue performance of metallic nanolayered composites (NLCs) has been gaining more and more attention due to the rapid development in the field of both micro-electro-mechanical systems and high-performance engineering structure materials and the increasing demand for long-term fatigue reliability. Metallic NLCs have exhibited different damage behaviors due to the effect of high-density heterogeneous interface compared with bulk materials and thin metal films. In this review paper, the cyclic deformation damage behavior, fatigue cracking feature, and fatigue properties of some metallic NLCs are reviewed. Effects of length scales, including layer thickness and grain size, on fatigue damage behaviors of the NLCs are revealed, and the transition of the fatigue cracking behavior and the corresponding damage mechanism are discussed. Then, the fatigue properties of some typical metallic NLCs are presented and compared with that of bulk materials and metal thin films. The effect of interface type and grain boundary alignment is also discussed to correlate with fatigue cracking resistance of the NLCs. Finally, some prospective research topics on fatigue performance of metallic NLCs are addressed.

Conventional methods for determination of trace drug residues are either time consuming or labor intensive or require large specialized instruments, which hamper their practical applications in field analysis. Here, we present a rapid and quantitative surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) detection method coupled with a portable Raman spectrometer for determination of trace drug residues on fish surface. Graphene oxide (GO) decorated popcorn-like Ag nanoparticles (NPs) on Cu plate (GO/AgNPs/Cu) were fabricated by a facile approach and directly employed as a robust SERS detection substrate. For practical SERS detections, trace-level residues of crystal violet (10−8 M, 4.1 ng/g) and malachite green (10−8 M, 3.6 ng/g) could be readily detected by simply swabbing the contaminated fish scale surface with the SERS substrate. Importantly, SERS detection was quantitatively realized in the broad linear concentrations. Compared with lab-based Raman spectrometer with large footprints, our method has potential applications in practical rapid, accurate, and on-site SERS determination.